So join me as I explore my own long road, from Maine to Antarctica to the UK, and most things inbetween. This blog is my ramblings from the daily life of a deep-sea biologist living as an alien in the USA, and a way to keep my family and friends in the loop that is my life without filling up everyones mailbox!

Friday, December 27, 2013

No one can say this wasn't an interesting Christmas this year! A quiet one was planned, and a 'quiet' one we got - forced home time, no power, no water, no net, meant for some fireside monopoly and quality book time! Christmas was on a Wednesday this year, and sunday night into Monday day we had a massive ice-storm come through that knocked out our power.

We were relatively prepared - we're on a well, so can't get water in a power out, and had plenty of oil lamps and candles. Alongside the propane fireplace and stove, and a small generator to keep the fridge cold every few hours - we did pretty well considering. The power went out sunday, but had come back on Monday morning. By 10am it had gone out again, and didn't come back on until late Christmas Eve. I have to say, it was super nice to take a hot shower Christmas morning!

So the rest can be said with pictures - I hope everyone had a Great Christmas too, we sure did!

Christmas Eve

Venturing outside to look a the crazy ice sculptures from the storm!

We decided to sleep in the living room rather than upstairs for two nights - mainly so we could run the generator every 4-6 hrs to keep the fridge going without having to move too far, but also because it's pretty darn cozy in the living room and we wouldn't have to worry about having to heat upstairs so much with the fireplace (though we know from before we can keep the whole house pretty warm with just the fireplace if we need to!).

The ice had shut up both cars completely, we had to pour a little water over the doors to be able to open them, then crack away at the ice on the windows. You couldn't just pour water everywhere, as it'd freeze right back up!

The driveway, after plowing and moving the cars around.

Zoe actually ventured out to see what we were doing. We had around 12 inches of snow on the ground prior to the storm, all was now covered over in an icy crust!

Burning bush, encased in ice.

Icy furs.

I've said it before, and i'll say it again. One of the main things I love about Maine winters is that it is rarely grey. The amazing blue skies, the white landscape, punctuated by the most amazingly red and orange sunsets and sunrises. It's hard to be down on the weather when it's just so darn sunny.....even when it is below freezing!

Christmas Day

A new Christmas tradition - orange cinnamon rolls from scratch! This was actually taken on Christmas eve - the dough rising on the fireplace.

Before cooking on Christmas morning.

And the finished result! No, we didn't eat it all......some went in the freezer. Yum yum though, definitely a new tradition!

Christmas morning sunrise.....just beautiful!

Opening presents. Barkley likes pork butt apparently....and has a very firm grip on the piggies head!

Brody tucking into a squeaky snake. It didn't last ten minutes, but he does love them so. The snake-skin also hangs around for months being played with, so they're worth it.

Brandon making a survival bracelet....for the next time he decides to climb Mt Washington with his buddies (that's for another story....).

Too icy for a long walk, we decided to check out the garden instead.

We had to dig channels for Barkley - she gets pretty wobbly on ice these days, and with her stitches still in her belly she needed to be careful around the garden and not sink up to her belly.

We had a couple of large fallen tree limbs. Barkley for scale.

Frozen buds....the last of the season.

Brody loves to rub himself up and down in the ice. Who knows why, but it's pretty cute.

Even Zoe came out to see what we were doing.

A little tree clean up and poop-patrol and we headed inside to hot chocolate, mince pies and movies on DVD....as we didn't get cable back until today, so had no netflix....or the queens speech, which is a first for me missing.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Firstly, we finished the kitchen cabinets! Complete with hardware even. They look awesome, and really brighten up the space! The next step, choosing a wall colour. It's proving pretty hard to chose, having the cabinets done really helps, but this colour will go all the way into the hall, so it has to be a colour that does both bright and dark spaces. You can almost see all the colour swatches we have up on the wall. This may be one of those rare occasions for me where we might actually have to get a bunch of small paint samples and paint a few patches here and there.

Miss Barkley says Merry Christmas! Poor girl had to have a lump removed from her chest this week, so has 12 staples that don't come out until just after new year. After a scare where they were almost certain it was cancer, when they pulled it out they're now not so sure. Given her age we decided not to biopsy to know for sure, it wouldn't change our plan for her - which is just to give her an awesome and comfortable retirement - so we decided not to spend the extra. Our vet is extremely awesome though and agreed with our decision, so on her own poked and prodded the tumor a lot more than she would normally and is now thinking it might just be a hard lipoma. Either way, it's now out and Barkley Bear is enjoying all the extra attention....and cookies....!

And there has been snow! This is my major road to get to work! So pretty!

Lots of snow! We've actually had nearly 2ft already, which is a lot for December!

We woke up one morning to snow at the bedroom windows!

I love this time of year - bright blue skies and shiny white snow. Just makes everything look clean and fresh. So pretty.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

The last two weekends we've been trying to complete a long standing project - painting the kitchen cabinets. It started with the island, which turned out great, and made us decide to give the whole kitchen a cheap facelift with a can of cream paint. Last weekend we finished the bottom cabinets, this weekend (during the snowstorm!) we started the upper cabinets. Hopefully by next weekend we'll be done!

This is all spurred on by the fact that we need to paint the kitchen walls, as they lead to the corridor, which at the moment is still just drywall from the builders this summer. But we were having a hard time deciding on colour. So hopefully having the cabinets the colour we want will help us choose a wall colour!

The endless taping!

Last weekend we finished the bottom cabinets, and put in hardware this week - it looks AWESOME!

And this weekend we finished the upper cabinets....just finishing the doors downstairs in the basement. They take FOREVER, as you have to do one side, let it dry, turn over, let it dry, turnover.....you get the idea. To get this cream colour we've had to do 4 coats to cover the old fake oak!

After a tough day of home improvement and snow shoveling, Brody takes a nap with his favorite toy, his (unlike most toys here which are "dog", this is definitely "Brodys"!) Chicken.

Apparently it makes a good pillow too. He's been sacked out like this for hours.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Friday, December 6, 2013

The Christmas spirit has finally struck, even though Brandon and I both have colds that just won't quit. We decided to cheer up this friday (i'd come home early as i'd had to stay in Orono overnight) by choosing our Christmas tree from a local farm. It was slightly larger than we thought when we got it home.....

Our couch has become the Old Lady couch. Note Barkley's socks - baby socks with sticky grippy stuff on the bottom - AWESOME for stopping her sliding around on our wood floor. The old girls won't snuggle, but they'll share the same couch.

The christmas tree - Barkley for scale.

It took so long to get the Christmas Tree in place Barkley needed a starfish snack midway through.

The new Starfish toys i brought back from Orono didn't last too long.....